ENOCH WENT TO HEAVEN WITHOUT FALLING SICK; I BELIEVE I MIGHT GO IN THE RAPTURE.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE SICK TO GO TO HEAVEN.
IN THE NAME THAT IS ABOVE EVERY OTHER NAME, FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE, YOU WILL NOT KNOW SICKNESS!
THE HEAVENS CAN OPEN WHEN GOD WANTS TO WELCOME HOME OVERCOMERS OF DEATH
WHEN THE ENEMY WANTS TO TAKE A CHAMPION, HE DOES NOT COME WITH A FRONTAL ATTACK
WHEN YOU SIT DOWN AT HOME, YOU MAY NOT REALIZE IT BUT LITTLE BY LITTLE, YOU ARE LOSING HEAT
GET BACK TO CHURCH AND BEGIN TO DRINK FROM THAT WELL THAT WILL NEVER RUN DRY
I STUDIED ELIJAH FOR 3 YEARS. HE’S A GOOD FRIEND OF MINE. HE NEVER TASTED DEATH.
YOU CAN GET SO CLOSE TO THE ALMIGHTY GOD THAT GOD WILL CAUSE YOU TO CHEAT DEATH
SOME PASTORS DO NOT WANT TO TALK ABOUT RAPTURE ANYMORE. PROSPERITY HAS DULLED THEIR SENSES TO IT
PREPARE FOR THE RAPTURE! THE HEAVENS CAN OPEN ANYTIME AND THOSE OF US WHO ARE READY WILL GO.
– Pastor E. A. Adeboye on “FOR WHOM THE HEAVENS OPEN (Part 10)” || RCCG Online Sunday Service || 26th March, 2023
Praise the Lord!
We are continuing with our series and we are talking about, “FOR WHOM THE HEAVENS OPEN.” We’ve been reading a text, Joshua 5:13-15. It may surprise you, those of you who have been following us that we’ve been reading this text again and again and we are yet to even talk about it. Don’t worry, we will talk about it. Church Gist. Like we said, we started this series, UNTO WHOM THE HEAVENS OPEN, based on what happened to Elisha in 2 Kings 2:9-15. We said that the heavens opened to Elisha and the Heavens opened to other people before him. So we started looking at other people for whom the Heavens opened. In this case we can see clearly that the heavens opened unto Joshua. He was facing a very big problem: a wall that is blocking his way. Later we will talk about walls, difference between a wall and a mountain, etc. Church Gist. There are lot of beautiful things to learn from this story. There are certain things that we need to keep on reminding ourselves about:
1. The issue of some of you sitting back at home and not going to Church. You may say, “Oh Sir, you’ve talked about this for 2 Sundays.” Yes, I have not finished talking about it because one thing that you need to know is that when the enemy wants to take a champion, he doesn’t come with a frontal attack. Church Gist. When he wants to leak the tank of a strong man of God, he doesn’t dig a deep hole in the tank. He will dig a very tiny hole so that the fuel will begin to drop just a little at a time so that the man of God will not even realize that he was losing fuel until a day will come when he will suddenly wake up and decide that, “I will go up as before…” and discover that the tank is empty.
If you don’t believe me, ask Samson. Samson will tell you that Delilah took him a little step at a time down the hill. Church Gist. When you sit down at home, you may not realize it but little by little, you’re losing heat and I don’t want you to wake up one day and discover that your fuel tank is empty. Get back to Church!
The reason we keep going back to Church is that, the fact that you drank water yesterday does not mean that you don’t need to drink today. If you stop drinking, you will dehydrate and nothing kills like dehydration. A man can do without food for a long time but he can’t do without water. Church Gist. Get back to Church and begin to drink from that well that will never run dry. It’s so important that I keep on repeating it until I believe in the mighty name of Jesus Christ it will penetrate to you so that by next Sunday you will be back in Church.
What exactly do we mean by when the heavens open?
We said that when heavens open, certain things happen. Church Gist. The heavens won’t open just casually. We gave some reasons:
1. It could be that God wants to reach out and pluck somebody special out of the jaws of death
2. It could be that he will stretch out his everlasting hands to pick someone who is drowning in a miry clay and promote him
3. It could be to knock down someone who is becoming too big for his own good and the good of the people around him
4. To arrest someone who is trying block the spread of the work of God
5. It could be that God wants to start a new era
6. When God wants to introduce someone special
7. When he wants to welcome a great warrior of Christ to Heaven above.
8. It could be when God wants to welcome home, overcomers of death: there are some of us who are listening to the message of God now who will never die physically. Church Gist. Some people when they hear us say that, the Almighty God will make you whole, that you will never be sick again, they hesitate to say Amen. They are asking the question, if I don’t fall sick, how am I ever going to die? You don’t have to be sick to go to Heaven.
– I am praying for all of you who are listening to me now, in the name that is above every other name, for the rest of your life, you will not know sickness!
There were people before who went to heaven without falling sick. Enoch happens to be one of them. Church Gist. That’s one of the reasons I believe I might go in the rapture. Genesis 5:24. The Heavens opened and God took his boy home. He wasn’t sick, he didn’t die, he just went.
(Laughs) I am laughing because one day, a Sunday school teacher asked his class, “who can tell us what happened to Enoch?” One student got up and said, Enoch and God were so close friends that occasionally, God will come down from Heaven to pay Enoch a visit. Church Gist. On one occasion he paid Enoch a visit and Enoch was escorting God back to his own house and they kept on going and going and by the time they looked back, the house of Enoch was far away. So God said, don’t go back to your house, just come along with me to my house. It sounds like the story of a child but full of meaning.
You can get so close to the Almighty God that God will cause you to cheat death. Church Gist. When you hear the story of how some people passed away, without sickness, ache nor pain, you will want to say, O God, how I wish the Heavens will open when it is time for me to come home.
I still remember an uncle of mine, went to Church on Thanksgiving Sunday (he was a Pastor) had a fantastic thanksgiving service, got home, took breakfast. Then the wife was preparing lunch and just as it was going to be pounded yam his favourite food, just as they were pounding the yam he decided to go into the toilet to ease himself. Church Gist. They finished pounding the yam and said, “ah! By now he should come out of the toilet.” They opened the door to find out he was gone. That’s a beautiful way to go.
Enoch was taken; he didn’t die. Of course what about Elijah? 2 Kings 2:9-11. I like the way Elijah left; it was so dramatic. He was a dramatic man so he left dramatically. The Almighty God sent his own Rolls Royce to go and bring in this great man of God. He didn’t just go in the Rolls Royce of the Almighty God, he had escort to lead him: chariots of fire, horses of fire. He didn’t go in the chariot of fire; he went in a whirlwind. Church Gist. The Holy Spirit came, surrounded him and they zoomed off. Oh, how I like Elijah! You know I studied him for 3 years. He’s a good friend of mine. He never tasted death. When you consider the fact that at a stage in his life, he was so sad that he was asking God to kill him. Instead of God killing him, God fed him thrice. It pays to be a friend of God. It pays to be close to the Almighty God. God looked at him and said, Kill you? You won’t even taste death.
More interestingly, in 1 Corinthians 15:51-58, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18, the Bible gave us a dramatic description of what will happen at the rapture. When those of us who remain till the Lord returns, when it will be time for us to go, we won’t go quietly. The world will know something is happening. Church Gist. The trumpet will sound, the whole Earth will know (because there will be many people left behind), the news all over the world will say, we don’t know what happened. All we know is that millions have disappeared. They were here today and gone tomorrow. How beautiful the rapture would be!
Some people have tried to describe it for us as there will be a lot of traffic jam on that day because many drivers will disappear, a lot of aircrafts will crash because the pilots have disappeared. It’s going to be wonderful; how I look forward to it. Unfortunately some pastors don’t even want to talk about it anymore. Prosperity has dulled their senses to the fact that Heaven is about to open. Church Gist. Some people don’t want to leave the world; they have fallen in love with the world and the things that are in it. I have good news for you: if you don’t leave these goodies, the goodies will leave you. One day your hands won’t be able to hold on to anything. That’s why it is better for you like Jesus Christ, if you want to keep your life, you must be willing to lose it unto me. If you say, no no no, I want to hold on to life, you’re going to lose life sooner or later. “It is appointed unto man to die…” When the time comes for you to die, you can’t take any car, mansion with you. All the money you’re hoarding that is not allowing you to serve the Almighty God, you won’t be able to take a single dime or kobo.
How wonderful will it be when the rapture comes that you will welcome the Lord joyfully because you are moving to mansions built with gold. Church Gist. You will be walking on street paved with gold. When the time comes to leave this world, you can’t take anything along.
I have always told my children the story of a man in my town. He was a wealthy man but he was so mindful of money. He never trusted banks. He kept his money in a big room in his house. He was so mindful of money he would follow the wife to the market. The wife will price the goods, he will pay. The wife will come home and make the soup for him and he will keep the soup under his bed. Church Gist. Then he died, his children who had gone abroad came back home. They were all looking for the key to big room and they couldn’t find it. One of the children suggested, “this rascal might have swallowed the key.” So they picked up his body, put his head down and began to slap his back. Believe it or not, True story! Out of his mouth jumped the key.
You brought nothing to this world, you’re going to take nothing out. Prepare for the rapture. Church Gist. The Heavens can open anytime and those of us who are ready will go.
Now, when the Heavens open, divine visitation is to be expected. Whenever the heavens open, there will be a divine visitation. Church Gist. It might be an angel that the Almighty God will send – may be to bring good news like in Judges 13:1-14.
– My prayer today is that the Almighty God will send to you and bring you some good news
Luke 1:5-17. The Almighty God again opened the Heavens and sent an angel to go and tell his servant, his high priest, the man who had been serving faithfully all the years. Church Gist. For some of us who have been serving God wholeheartedly, and like in some cases we have found men of God and I believe God is speaking to one particular family today, “we’ve been serving God faithfully; we’ve been praying for others, they have been receiving answer to their prayers and there has been a problem in our life that we have prayed about and nothing had happened.” Oh, may the Heavens open today. Church Gist. May the Almighty God send a visitor of joy to you.
So when the Heavens open, divine visitation is to be expected. It might be an Angel or it may be God himself coming. Genesis 18:1-5. God didn’t come alone to visit Abraham; he came with at least, 2 escorts. When Abraham lifted up his eyes, he knew immediately, these were not ordinary men and he invited them into his house and a lot of things followed. Church Gist. May be God will give us an opportunity to discuss that particular divine visitation in one of these series. But in Exodus 3:1-6, you will notice that in the case of Moses, God came personally. He paid Moses a visit.
– May the Almighty God visit somebody personally today!
Because when He comes personally, it means several things will happen. For God to come personally, the first thing he has to do is stand up because he is seated on his throne in Heaven. Isaiah 66:1. The Almighty God doesn’t have to leave Heaven to do anything on Earth. Church Gist. The Earth is under his footstool; all he has to do is speak a Word and whatever he wants to happen on Earth will happen. He doesn’t have to leave his throne in Heaven. Psalms 115:3. But occasionally, the Heavens will open and the Almighty God will stand up from his throne. When he stands, a lot of things happen. Psalms 68:1-3.
– I pray this day that the Almighty God will arise for you. That the Heavens will open and the one who made the Heavens and the Earth will arise because when He does, his enemies scatter.
You know God has no enemies other than your enemies. When He was talking to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus after he knocked him down, he said, “as long as you are persecuting my children, you’re persecuting me.” When God arises he takes over your battle. Church Gist. He begins to fight for you because your enemies are his enemies. You need to please understand this that it is written, “whenever you suffer, God is suffering.” He said, with all his afflictions I am afflicted. The Almighty God is on your side and the Lord of Hosts is going to fight your battles for you.
When it says, “let God arise and his enemies will scatter” is enough a passage to tell you that if you’re not on the side of God, when God arises you will be one of those who will scatter. Church Gist. When God arises, it means the one who is called the consuming fire is arising and believe it or not, some people are going to cry to God today and say, “Oh God arise.” When He arises, you better be on the side of God because otherwise, you will be one of those that he will deal with.
Salvation Call:
#PastorEAAdeboye
#ForWhomTheHeavensOpen10
#SupersonicSunday
#26March2023
#OnlineSundayService
#DoublePortion
#RCCG
#ChurchGist
